Ambient office  = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

       The Pentagon is planning on spending a trillion dollars over the next decade on a new generation of nuclear bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Together, these are known as the nuclear triad. Recently, at an event on Capitol Hill, Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein, Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said, “But the triad is more than a triad. The triad also means space capability. We need the capability of early warning satellites to know what is going on. We need an unblinking eye to find out what is going on. That unblinking eye is provided by space. We need the capability of military communications, secure military communications satellites, EMP [radiation] hardened communications.”
       The U.S. president is connected to military forces by a classified communication network known as NC3 which stands for nuclear command, control and communications. Weinstein said that while NC3 has not traditionally been considered as part of the triad, nonetheless it is vital to the U.S. nuclear defense. Weinstein went on to say, “I can talk all day about the importance of NC3. The president has to communicate with forces. We need command posts that can take over those missions. Then you need the processes and procedures so that crew members know that a message is authentic and valid. That is foundational to this nuclear force.”
       The Trump administration has pointed out that NC3 is a system that needs to be modernized. They have suggested that NC3 needs a change in governance structure. Currently, the program is managed by Air Force Global Strike Command. Protecting satellites and signals from being jammed has become very important because China and Russia are working on techniques and technologies to disrupt and disable U.S. space assets. The Joint Staff review of NC3 was scheduled to be presented to Secretary of Defense James Mattis yesterday.
       NC3 consists of waring satellites and radars; communications satellites, aircraft, and ground stations; fixed and mobile command posts; and the control centers for nuclear systems. The Nuclear Posture Review stated that many of these systems employ antiquated technology that has not been upgraded in almost three decades. The future architecture of the system needs to be designed.
       When the nuclear triad systems are modernized, it is important that they be able to connect to classified Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites that can be used for conventional and nuclear military missions. The Air Force is working on modernizing communications and early warning satellites. Integration with NC3 is critical. 
      The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the cost of modernizing NC3 could be as much as fifty-eight billion dollars over ten years. This project is very important because the Pentagon will be putting the next generation of the nuclear triad into operation in ten years and these new systems will not be compatible with the antiquated NC3 system which was designed in the Sixties.
      The land-based leg of the nuclear triad is referred to as the ground-based strategic deterrence. The future version of this leg will be a network of four hundred missile silos that need redundant and assured communications. The current land leg of the triad communicates over thirty thousand miles of buried copper wire that connects the three Air Force bases that host the Minuteman 3 nuclear silos. It is reliable but low bandwidth.
       Weinstein said, “Everyone in the U.S. Air Force needs to understand the value of the nuclear force, just like everyone in the U.S. Air Force needs to understand the value of the space force. … Strategic deterrence in the 21st century is more than just nuclear. It’s space, cyber and conventional.”

Ambient office  = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 84 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Bartlett pear from Central Market = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 52 nanosieverts per hour

On April 27, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said, “Promoting early-stage investment in advanced nuclear power technology will support a strong, domestic, nuclear energy industry now and into the future. Making these new investments is an important step to reviving and revitalising nuclear energy, and ensuring that our nation continues to benefit from this clean, reliable, resilient source of electricity. Supporting existing as well as advanced reactor development will pave the way to a safer, more efficient, and clean baseload energy that supports the U.S. economy and energy independence.”
       The Department of Energy has a program called the U.S.  Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development initiative for this purpose. Last December, the DoE announced that eight projects will receive sixty million dollars. There are three types of funding for this new initiative.
       First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects provides funding for projects that focus on “major advanced reactor design development projects or complex technology advancements for existing plants which have significant technical and licensing risk, and have the potential to be deployed by the mid-to-late 2020s.” Advanced Reactor Development Projects focuses on “covering a broad scope of concepts and ideas that could improve the capabilities and commercialization potential of advanced reactor designs and technologies.” Regulatory Assistance grants provide support for “obtaining certification and licensing approvals for advanced reactor designs and capabilities.”
      These funding opportunities will run for five years. Applications will be accepted any time of the year and there is a quarterly selection process. As much as forty million dollars will be available for the remainder of fiscal year 2018.
       Under the First-of-a-Kind Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects NuScale Power will receive forty million dollars for its modular reactor development.
       X-Energy received four and a half million dollars for the design and license application for a fuel fabrication facility. This facility will handle high-assay, low-enriched uranium to produce U.S. developed Triso fuel. X-Energy is working on a seventy-five megawatt small modular high temperature gas-cooled pebble bed reactor called the Xe-100. The company is currently manufacturing uranium oxide/carbine-based fuel kernels, Triso particles and fuel pebbles at a pilot facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
     Under the Advanced Reactor Development Projects funding, BWXT Nuclear Energy received five million four hundred thousand dollars. They will work in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Laboratories on the development of additive materials manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) for the fabrication of nuclear components that will be acceptable in structure and strength to the U.S. national code organizations and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
      Projects from General Atomics, Elysium Industries USA, and NuVision Engineering Inc will also receive funding from the Advanced Reactor Development Projects pool of funds.
      Regulatory Assistance Grant funds will be made available to two projects. Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation receive half a million dollars for their work on the development of guidelines for online monitoring for the extension of calibration intervals for nuclear power plant instrumentation. General Atomics will receive three hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars for a pre-application review of a silicon carbine composite-clad uranium carbide fuel system for use in their gas-cooled fast reactor.
       An additional five companies have been selected to receive technology development vouchers under the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative. The following companies have received vouchers worth the dollar amounts in parentheses: Terrestrial Energy USA (USD500,000); Vega Wave Systems, Inc (USD130,000); Oklo, Inc (USD417,000); Urbix Resources, LLC (USD320,000); and ThorCon US, Inc (USD400,000). These companies will be able to use their vouchers to pay for services or use of facilities at any of the DoE national laboratories or Nuclear Science User Facility partner facilities.

Ambient office  = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Organic carrot from Central Market = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 50 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 46 nanosieverts per hour

       When the term “nuclear power” is used today, it is actually referring to reactors that utilize nuclear fission to generate electricity. Scientists have been working for decades to develop reactors that would use nuclear fusion. Currently there are at least six companies in the U.S. working on fusion reactors that are expected to be smaller, cheaper and safer than nuclear fission reactors with the added benefit of cheap fuel and no pollution or radioactive waste.
        Unfortunately, a sustained nuclear fusion reaction that could be used in a commercial power generator is not easy to achieve. Enormous temperature and pressure are needed. Often very powerful magnetic fields are used to confine a superheated plasma but it is difficult to control the plasma and keep it from touching the walls of the containment vessel and dissipating. There is a great deal research in fundamental plasma physics going on as part of the work on nuclear fusion power generation.
       The University of Michigan Center for Laser Experimental Astrophysical Research (CLEAR) is conducting a study which indicates that heat plays an important role in the mixing of materials during a fusion reaction. This factor has not received sufficient attention to date. The researchers are studying nuclear fusion in supernovas as well as small-scale fusion reactions generated in the lab. A key part of fusion reactions in both the supernovas and in the lab is something called Rayleigh-Taylor mixing.
      When a star goes supernova, plasmas of elements such as iron, carbon, helium and hydrogen are hurled outward. Supernova remnant clouds are created by the dynamic mixing of plasmas with different densities which is called Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
      The U of M scientists have concluded that the methods that have been used to model the plasma mixing that takes place in a supernova are incomplete. Energy fluxes that cause heating in the cloud of plasma have an important affect on the mixing. In spite of this, Rayleigh-Taylor instability has not been taken into consideration in astrophysical modeling.
      Carolyn Kuranz, is the director of U-M’s CLAER and an associate research scientist of climate and space sciences and engineering. She recently said, “Rayleigh-Taylor has been studied for over 100 years. But the effects of these high energy fluxes, these mechanisms that cause heating, have never been studied.”
      The U of M team found that with the increase in energy fluxes and the resulting heating, the amount of mixing and the Rayleigh Taylor instability were reduced. Kuranz said, “These heating mechanisms reduce mixing and can have a dramatic effect on the evolution of a supernova. In our experiment, we found that mixing was reduced by 30 percent and that reduction could continue to increase over time.”
        To research the way that heating affects a fusion reaction, the U of M researchers booked time on the largest laser in the world at the National Ignition Facility in Lawrence, CA. This facility uses lasers and heat to create a momentary fusion reaction. This creates conditions that resemble those in the cloud left over from a supernova explosion. Kuranz said, “Rayleigh-Taylor is theorized to occur in all Type II supernovae and there is evidence that these stars are turning themselves ‘inside out’ when they explode. These experiments help us learn what’s going on inside.”
       It is believed that observation of supernovas and controlled nuclear fusion reactions in the laboratory will have wide applications in the quest for commercial nuclear fusion power generation. Among other things, this research should help maximize the efficiency of energy generation.
      Kuranz said, “Right now, all of our nuclear plants are fission plants. But fusion tends to be more efficient and yield less nuclear waste. Instead of using plutonium or uranium, as with fission, fusion can be generated using lighter elements such as hydrogen isotopes. We have a nearly unlimited source of fusion fuel on Earth.”